Flying Things

Here are the last few shots from my recent visit to Leighton Moss, I could have split them between two posts however I have some  (what I hope will be) nice shots of Fungi to sort through and edit so I am putting these together. Although one is an insect and the other is a bird they are connected by flight so I think it is reasonable to post them together.

The first is a Common Darter a fairly small dragonfly which very obligingly settled on this reed long enough for me to get a couple of shots. I think I mentioned in my previous post that there were thousands of dragonflies around the reserve, I have never seen so many in one place before, however this was about the only one that I could photograph. 

The second is a beautiful Robin, and who doesn't like a Robin. Instantly recognisable and always a welcome sight.

I have numerous photos of Robins from over the years but I can never resist getting another.

 

Bearded Tits

 I had a couple of first time experiences yesterday in that I made use of the good weather and some unexpected free time to head off to RSPB Leighton Moss in Silverdale. That was the first of my firsts because although I have been a member of the RSPB for some time and former colleagues at work had advised me many times that I should visit I had never been to Leighton Moss before.

It is an amazing wetland habitat with so much to see, there were red deer, egrets, various wildfowl species, marsh harriers, and more dragon flies that I have ever seen at one time before. At one point I was watching a great egret feasting on dragonflies by picking them off reeds and snatching them from the air with such precision.

The second of my firsts was to see a pair of Bearded Tits, or Bearded Reedlings as they are also known. I had been told there were two potential sites where I might be lucky enough to spot them although they tend to be more active at the beginning and end of the day so there was no guarantee that I would spot any. Leaving one hide I was told by some other visitors that they had just seen three of these wonderful birds and told me where I should look. When I arrived there were two other photographers who were also on the lookout but they had not seen them yet and one had been waiting over an hour so I wasn't very hopeful.

I was determined not to give up too quickly and after a little while I spotted a male on the reeds at the edge of the clearing, unfortunately it was obscured by the reeds so there was no photo op, I could at least say that I had seen one and that for me was quite exciting. It was also enough to make me stop around a little longer and see if it ventured into a better spot. I was not disappointed and finally I was able to capture a few shots of this stunning male Bearded Tit. They are a little soft because of the distance being pretty much at the effective range of my 100 - 400 mm lens. The guy next to me was using a 200 - 800 mm lens and the difference between his images and mine was noticeable and left me with a touch of lens envy, however I am happy with the shots I was able to capture and my first sighting of these wonderful little birds was a real treat making the journey to Leighton Moss well worth it.

Milestones

I have chosen this title and these images today because I like the images but mainly because today I have reached a significant milestone with regard to page views of my blog.

I started this blog 12 years ago on Thursday 18th September 2104 with the aim of sharing my photography with family and friends and with luck anyone who happened to stumble across my posts. I started posting daily but over time this reduced and in 2024 I didn't post anything on the blog I just shared pictures on Instagram and facebook.

Occasionally I would monitor the number of page views and I would be excited to see that my posts were being viewed, not just by family and friends but all around the world. I included a counter at the bottom of the page to see how much traffic the blog was getting and slowly, very slowly it ticked over. 

As the total number of page views increased I started to pay a little more attention until this morning in the early hours it ticked past 1 million page views, and as I write this it stands at 1,oo5,936. Given that that is spread over such a long time it might not seem all that remarkable however just two months ago at the start of August the total page views was 732,653, and then, for some reason things have really taken off with almost 275,000 views in just 7 weeks.

When I spoke about how close the total was getting to 1 million someone asked me "what do you get when it does?" and of course the answer is "I get nothing" this blog is not monetised and  no one is going to come along and give me an award but there is still a sense of satisfaction that images I have captured and created have been viewed and enjoyed so many times by people all around the world. At times I have been tempted to stop sharing but the recent increase in views tells me that what I am doing is worthwhile so I will continue and hopefully you will continue to enjoy what I share.

The first two images were taken in Triberg in the Black Forest in autumn 2021, I have shared similar images in the past but I created these new edits for this post. The final two photos were taken using my phones camera on a walk along the banks of the river Seine at a place called Grisy sur Seine last September. As I said at the start of this post they are old milestones to commemorate my milestone.

 

Pere Lachaise

 I have been lucky enough to visit Paris many many times over the years, the first time being in 1972 when I was only around 9 years old. It has been a city that I felt drawn back to and where I have always found something new to keep my interest alive.

One of the places I had wanted to see was the Pere Lachaise cemetery but until a trip in 2023 I had never really had the opportunity to do so. I knew it was the resting place of many famous people and this draws many tourists to visit and when you go in you are handed a map showing where many celebrities from the worlds of literature, philosophy, music, art and fashion are buried. While I was curious to a certain degree to see the final resting places for some of these famous people I was more interested in the scale of the cemetery and the air of calm in the heart of a city. It was like a small town with streets and alleyways, paved and marked with street signs. There was birdsong and squirrels, the colours and scents of autumn and rather than hunt for famous graves I looked at the memorials for ordinary people and reflected on what their lives might have been like. I didn't photograph Jim Morrison's grave or Oscar Wilde's, or Edith Piaf's but I reflected on the other 70,000 people whose life journey had ended here.

I shot these images in black and white because on a bright autumn day the colours didn't really suit the atmosphere I wanted to convey. This is a calm but sombre place and where I have used colour it is to highlight detail in some of the crypts that were open or damaged in some way.

I am glad that I finally got the chance to visit the cemetery and in some ways I am glad that it took me so long to get there. Perhaps, had I gone when I was younger I may have been drawn more to the celebrity graves rather than being able to appreciate the serenity and beauty of the place. I won't say any more about the individual images but hope as you look at them you will get a sense of what I mean and how I felt. If you feel so inclined why not leave a comment. 

Cascade Falls Trail

Perhaps my favourite place that I visited on my American road trip last year was Lake Tahoe. I say perhaps because there were so many fantastic places along the way and I would happily revisit all of them but I really want to go bake to Lake Tahoe to explore much more than the couple of days we had there allowed.

The 9 hour drive from Utah was memorable for many reasons, the stunning scenery from the Great Salt Lake, the salt flats and the seemingly endless desert as well as the sat nav instruction when I got onto i80 saying "stay on this road for 450 miles". At the end of the journey I was greeted by snow capped mountains, lush forests and a beautiful expansive lake. 

On the only full day of the visit I headed up to Cascade Falls and hiked the cascade Falls Trail. It was an easy walk to begin with but after an easy level path initially it became steeper and narrower and in the early summer it got hot very quickly. The views along the way were absolutely stunning and at the end of the trail I bathed my feet in the icy water of the falls, probably the coldest water I have stood in, but so refreshing before heading back  down the path to the car.

The drive from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco was also spectacular and it would have been great to have more time to explore places along the way. I really hope that I get an opportunity to go back some time but for now I will enjoy a few of the shots I took on the trail.

Cascade Falls Trail

Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe

Dead wood

Western wallflower (a member of the mustard family)

California Garden

 One of the things I love about traveling to new places is discovering different wildlife. During my trip to the USA last year I stayed in San Martin, California and in the garden there was a host of different birds, insects and lizards. I could have spend so much time just in the garden but with so much to explore and so little time I didn't have the time to do more than get a few snaps. Here are the best of them.

House finch

Acorn Woodpecker

Brewers Blackbird (?)

Northern Mockingbird

Californian Towhee

Hooded Oriole (female)

Hooded Oriole (Male)

Anna's Hummingbird

Coast Range Fence Lizard

Bucket List

 It may seem like a strange thing to include visiting the Botallack tin mines in Cornwall in my bucket list of sites to see but is has long been an ambition of mine to go there. Not because the landscape was made famous by TV shows like Poldark but because of the real history of the place has always fascinated me; the hardships of the men who put their lives at risk deep under ground, the families who supported them and the harsh conditions they endured.  The site is managed by the National Trust and is genuinely a national treasure.

Although I was only in Cornwall for a few days I was pretty determined that I would get here and I was so pleased that I did. After visiting Land's End which was fun (watching a shoal of Tuna feeding down below the headland) it was also too commercialised and far too busy for my liking, a short drive up to Botallack was definitely the right move. For a start it was much more peaceful, there was hardly anyone else around, and the scenery was even more impressive. The industrial architecture was stunning and it was quite an adventure finding the right angles to photograph from. I got into a bit of trouble as I clambered up and down the slopes but the slight risks I took seemed insignificant compared to those taken by the men and women who made a living here many years ago.

I visited at the end of a sunny but blustery day at the beginning of October and I tried to imagine how challenging it must have been when the weather conditions were less favourable, or even quite hostile as I am sure they can be on such an exposed landscape.

Below is a small selection of the images I took on the day (I have more that I may share another time). I chose to do mostly black and white images because they are more dramatic than the colour images and I felt they were more evocative of the period when this place was in use. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

St Michael's Mount

Just one image for today and for this I am going back to my Cornwall trip in 2024.

I have experimented a little with this view of St Michael's Mount, I quite like it but let me know what you think. I remember it as being quite a sunny day on and off and I enjoyed eating a delicious pasty from Philps' bakery in Marazion whilst looking across at this view. Although it was mostly sunny there were moments of cloudy weather too and even a little mist on the mount itself, and so I have edited the original image to bring out some of the drama in the sky.

I would like to have time to go back and do some long exposure shots and maybe get some reflections as well as maybe some night time shots with the mount illuminated, but who knows when that might be possible. In the meantime I will reflect on some of my photos and order some pasties from Philps.

 

More Macro - Hoverflies and Droneflies

As I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago I had been to RSPB Burton Mere however rather than photographing birds I ended up doing a spot of macro photography, which had been my back up plan. A few people gave me odd glances as I crouched down by the side of the path, a few asked what I had seen and shrugged when I explained I was photographing bugs but then one couple surprised me by identifying some of the hoverflies  giving me their scientific and common names and suggesting where I might spot others along the way.

I was really impressed and grateful, I explained that other than knowing they were different species of hoverflies I had no idea what I was looking at. They said that they had assumed I knew because of the interest and care I was taking in photographing them and they stayed a few moments longer to share some of their knowledge. I will probably forget most of what they told me but I will try at least to remember the common names and look more closely in future at the different varieties I see.

Hoverflies and Droneflies are really important pollinators, they have markings that make them look a lot like bees or wasps, some, as you will see below are covered in fine hairs like bees but they are all harmless to humans, they cannot bite or sting and they have no venom. Their colouring is purely to scare off predators. Like flies they have one pair of wings whereas bees and wasps have two pairs. As adults they feed exclusively on nectar and pollen while their larvae tend to be voracious predators eating aphids although some species do eat plants or decaying matter. Whatever their diet hoverflies should be welcomed  9even encouraged) into your gardens.

Sphaerophoria scripta (sometime called Twister Hoverfly)

A bonus image of a Plume Thistle

Sphaerophoria scripta

Helophilus pendulus - Footballer Hoverfly (sometimes Sun Fly)

Eristalis - Dronefly

Episyrphus baleatus - Marmalade Hoverfly

Sphaerophoria scripta - Twister Hoverfly